My Kind Of Book Club

It’s been an interesting past couple of weeks… Here are the highlights:

1) I’ll admit it: I didn’t believe the abundant rumors that British men resemble the third stage from the cover of Animorph books; after all, England is the country that gave us the panty dropper that is Colin Firth. Obviously, I was young and naive.

So in that regard, I guess I should be thanking my lucky stars I’m not exactly single and ready to mingle. Still, I can’t help but grieve for my bachelorette friends who see river trolls instead of Beckhams everywhere they turn. In summary:

Text from Tim: “At the DMV. Looks like the crowd from the Star Wars bar.”

Me: “I’m at an English pub, so same situation.”

2) SoHo (or as the locals call it, “SoHomo,” for its prominent gay community) has become my new favorite area of London – other than the indie pocket of Shoreditch, of course. And not just because of the tube’s close proximity to heaven aka Chipotle, either. Even the froyo joints like “Snog” are adorable!

One of these days I’m going to record an entire one of my phone calls with Marti… the woman is a wild card. Notable quotes from our last chat included:

“Write more blog entries. I need entertainment.”

“Oh my god, my daughter’s a hipster.”

“When you meet your boyfriend’s parents, just make sure the dinner goes better than it did with Jessa on Girls.”

Quick poll: how concerned should I be that my mother and I enjoy the same television shows – including Lena Dunham’s slightly pornographic comedy that follows young adults as they snort coke at clubs and experiment with their sexuality?

Speaking of Marti, I think I finally stumbled upon the perfect gift for her while I was perusing a market in Berkshire. My personal favorite is “life is too short to drink cheap wine”; of course, I would get my sign altered to say “… drink anything other than tequila” to better sum up some of the decisions I made freshman year. “Is it wine o’clock yet?” also does my semester abroad in Madrid justice.

4) One of my favorite nights out had to be when my friends picked a club specifically designed to make all of my Urban Outfitters alcoholic dreams come true. The place was called “Book Club” and while other venues have a formal or semi-formal dress code, it’s pretty much a prerequisite here to wear plaid and Doc Martens.

The night started on a solid note when the bouncer welcomed me in even though I didn’t have enough money to pay the cover (as someone willing to wear a skirt on a chilly Friday night, I find it preposterous to keep more than 3 pounds in my pocket) and got even better when the bartender handed me a drink after all I said was, “Feel like giving that to me for free?” If living in Spain has taught me anything, it’s to never underestimate the power of straightforward questioning. Also the power of being an American girl ages 16-25.

Aside from the chain-smoking predators who can always be found lurking across Europe, Book Club differentiates itself by taking as many cues from 500 Days of Summer as humanly possible. (And yeah, I’ll confess I’ve probably seen that movie an absurd amount of times. But only because I keep getting compared to Summer and I still don’t know if that’s supposed to be an insult or compliment. But I’ll choose to go with compliment.)

Anyway, here you can find a room which sole purpose is to house a ping pong table (nope, not beer pong, people ACTUALLY play ping pong on it), stylish oak tables that you just know have to be vintage, way too many glasses of white wine, and as the name suggests, yes… there’s an actual library tucked away in this Garden State-esque paradise. Imagine my confusion when I’m standing at one of the bars telling some foreigner that the only way we can keep this conversation going is if he buys me a tequila sunrise/whatever will best ease the pain of hearing about his childhood insecurities – and I turn around to see walls covered in books. But then it came to my attention there was no Harry Potter collection present so I quickly lost interest.

5) This entry was brought to you by the 100000 or so snapchats I receive from the blackout princesses of Oxford (you may know them as Camilla and Kayla) on a daily basis. Happy midterm week, everyone!